Year: 2012

Havelock is a ferry ride from South Andaman and named after Henry Havelock who was a British General. The astounding thing about the islands is that they still, to this day, retain most of their British names, Lawrence Island, Sir William Peel Island, Interview Island and Table Island. Perhaps it is a sign that the…

There are six aboriginal tribes on the islands, some barely in existence, but all fascinating for their roots, their customs and their traditions. The Onge,the Great Andamese, the Sentinelese and the Jarawa are quite short with curly hair and are very black. The Nicobarese and the Shompen are lighter skinned and have straight hair. Anthropologist…

Perhaps the first question I would need to answer for most people is where on earth are these islands and they are here : http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/google_map_Andaman_Nicobar.htm The little red bits ! Miles away from anywhere and very interesting because of it. I was fascinated by their history. I found a book at the resort we were staying…

A lot of us who live in this part of Delhi drive past them very often but it is not till the other day that I had the opportunity to visit the Chattarpur temple complex. It was a very interesting visit which might appeal to some more of you out there as it is “Navratri”,…

Last month there was a small article in the newspaper to say that the government was going to ban gutka – non Indian readers of the blog are unlikely to know what this is so with apologies to my Indian readers I can tell you that this is a concoction which is sold on the…

Picture the scene if you can: We are travelling on the road into Gurgaon, a satellite town built very close to Delhi. They are in the process of building and extending the Metro. There are scaffolds above,diversions below, we go round a roundabout the wrong way,(everybody does that as it is shorter route,)  as someone is trying to…

This, dear readers is verbatim from an interesting journal called the Inner World. Know your knees “Women with rounded knees are going to be with you for a long time and would be a great support to the husband or a friend. The women who have knees devoid of flesh or bones jutting out were…

As most of you are aware I live in the so called “Farmhouses” of South Delhi. To be honest not a great deal of farming takes place though on my compound they do plant and harvest mustard seed. So it was with incredible delight that we saw three of these leverets bouncing around the garden…

The good news was that Gina and Jonathan’s tent had not been swept off the peak where it was pitched in the night. The hilarious news was that we all looked as if we had botox injections all night. Bloated and puffy with limbs and faces feeling the effects of the altitude. The bad news…

We were four ;two doctors, one well equipped, an actuary, whose job it is to assess risks but who secretly wants to be Ray Mears, and I, middle aged and momentarily swayed by the attractive itinerary. It was too late to back out, friends flew in from Liverpool in the UK, we took the overnight…